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Motorola's first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phone will also sport an 'invisible' under-display camera

By Adrian Diaconescu

Published: Dec 07, 2021, 5:11 AM

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Motorola Android

Motorola's first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phone will also sport an 'invisible' under-display camera

Despite never releasing a single device powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 processor and unveiling the Moto G200 with a Snapdragon 888+ SoC under its hood just a few weeks ago, Motorola is gearing up to become the first company in the world to make a smartphone based on the curiously named Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 monster official.

Of course, the state-of-the-art silicon will not be the only great thing about the Moto Edge 30 Ultra (or Edge X30) flagship, with a bunch of other impressive specs like blazing fast 68W charging support, a triple rear-facing camera setup with two different 50MP sensors, and a 60MP selfie shooter recently leaked and/or confirmed to send a shiver down the spine of some Samsung, Apple, and Xiaomi executives.

But wait, there's more

More reasons to get excited about the fast-approaching Motorola Edge X30, which is slated to make its formal debut in China under that name on Thursday, December 9. Or rather one specific reason to be intrigued (at the very least) by a special X30 edition.

The launch date and battery specs of the Edge X30 are etched in stone

Said model, which is unlikely to ever be released outside of Lenovo's homeland, will apparently come with an incredibly attractive design featuring razor-thin bezels all around the undoubtedly sharp AMOLED display and no distracting cutouts whatsoever.

We're talking no hole punch, and obviously, no notch either, with the front-facing snapper instead residing beneath the actual screen. Granted, under-display camera technology has been around for a while now, debuting on a ZTE flagship more than a year ago and slowly expanding to a number of other brands, Samsung included.

But there's something about Motorola's execution of the concept that simply prevents us from looking away from the gorgeous first render of the special Edge X30 edition. Said image was shared by a Lenovo executive on Weibo, mind you, and with the China-based tech giant owning Motorola, there's obviously no reason to doubt its legitimacy and accuracy.

Can Motorola steal Samsung, Xiaomi, and ZTE's thunder?

Before getting too excited, it's important to remember that the real-life device may still look different, especially in action and from certain angles. At first glance, the under-display camera definitely looks better than the one on Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 3, which is far from invisible. As pointed out by Ice Universe on Twitter, the "chin" is also considerably thinner than what the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra has going for it in that department, although that might not be true for the "regular" Motorola Edge X30 model.

Special Moto Edge X30 (top), Galaxy Note 20 Ultra (bottom)

That's the one we expect to see in global stores under the Edge 30 Ultra label starting at some point in early 2022, so if you don't live in China, you may not want to pay much attention to Motorola's presumably small-scale under-display camera experiment.

If you do live in China or have a special interest in the world's largest smartphone market, you should keep in mind that there are other local companies racing to roll out their Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 rookie efforts as well, so it actually remains to be seen if the Moto Edge X30 will be the first to go on sale.

The Xiaomi 12 series, for one, is tipped to go official on December 28 (with no word on an under-display camera variant), while ZTE has a few Nubia-branded powerhouses of its own in the pipeline, which could break cover any day now.

Another interesting detail that remains to be seen is whether or not Motorola will be able to embed the same impressive-sounding 60MP camera of the standard Edge X30 into the screen of the special edition rendered today in all its glory. Given that the Galaxy Z Fold 3 had to settle for a sub-par 4MP under-display selfie cam, we'd guess not, which would make it even cooler if Motorola somehow managed to pull off that feat.

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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.